Best Of New Orleans Blog

This year’s exceptionally early Mardi Gras has put the biggest contest in football, the Super Bowl, right up against one of the biggest parades of Carnival, the celebrity-studded superkrewe Bacchus.

If you can’t decide whether to holler for beads or cheer for your favored team, the French Quarter Italian restaurant Café Giovanni is offering one potential work-around.

Chef Duke LoCicero will hold a Super Sunday Celebration at the restaurant , beginning at 3 p.m. on Feb. 3. Guests can catch the parade as it passes along Canal Street just a block away and duck back into the restaurant to see the game on several large televisions. There are drink specials at the bar and a special Super Sunday menu of pastas, salads and appetizers. Day-long admission is $20 per person.

For me one of the highlights of Mardi Gras time is always the brief, seasonal reunion of the Panorama Brass Band, the carnival-time offshoot of Panorama Jazz Band. Band leader/founder/Clarinetist Ben Schenk started Panorama to focus on Clarinet heavy brass music, and the band plays raucous numbers from all over the world, with Balkan, Caribbean and Klezmer influences, as well as homespun New Orleans selections. Their shows are always totally jumping, with audience members ranging from gutter punks to old school New Orleans brass aficionados. One of my favorite Mardi Gras memories is following Panorama around in the St. Anthony parade and even watching them in a bizarre standoff with a bunch of rabid Christian protestors who, for whatever reason, (more…)

Local eating habits, never a paragon of restraint under normal circumstances, tend to bottom out at Mardi Gras, when cold fried chicken, mangled finger sandwiches and bloody Mary garnishes can make up a shockingly high percentage of nutritional intake for some people, myself included.

But this year I’ve spotted a small measure of gastronomical salvation along the parade route, in the form of the World’s Healthiest Pizza. This is the local company formed in 2006 by health and nutrition writer Jeff Leach and his business partners with a serious mission to make the nation’s most popular take-out food something that is actually good for you. The fiber-loaded crust is the heart of the matter, and the center of the boast implied in the company’s name.

The company has done well enough to expand with two shops now open in the Uptown universities area, and this carnival season World’s Healthiest Pizza vendors can be found hawking their pies from a wagon they drag along the St. Charles Avenue parade route. If you’ve been curious about this pizza but perhaps reluctant to try it, the parade route is actually the perfect opportunity to give it a whirl. (more…)

 by Sam Winston

You gotta give the guy credit for putting New Orleans in the spotlight. Whether it’s genuine is probably besides the point because Edwards is apparently bowing out of the race for President. New Orleans and the recovery in the national political news, rising with Edwards’ announcement from the 9th ward and plummeting after the national debate snub, has officially vanished as a campaign issue.

While Edwards as a candidate has been overshadowed by the Clinton and Obama campaigns, he has managed to steer the policy debate for the Democrats quite a bit. He definitely brought up New Orleans more often than any other candidate. It’s probably wishful thinking but perhaps in trying to gain his endorsement Clinton or Obama will once again take up the plight of New Orleans and create a much more visible and active federal plan. The Democratic candidates think they own this issue but it would be nice if they’d belly up to the heavy lifting of it the way Edwards advocated instead of just using it to bap their Republicans foes with it for an easy score.

According to Edwards’ website, its going down at noon at

Musicians’ Village
4000 North Roman Street (Intersection of Roman and Bartholomew)

(Why so happy? These guys have pretty good health care coverage.)

It seems President Bush cares about as much for health care as he does New Orleans—at least in the number of words, that is. In Bush’s 2006 State of the Union speech, many in New Orleans believed he would outline many of his administration’s plans for rebuilding the city and the Gulf Coast. Instead, Bush expended 160 words on all the feds had already done for New Orleans, and recognized that “many of our fellow citizens have felt excluded from the promise of our country” (they likely felt this exclusion most acutely when they were hanging out on rooftops waiting for days to be rescued, or while they were waiting for rescue for days at the Convention Center or it could have been when they were living for days, weeks and months in formaldehyde-laced trailer homes waiting for suitable replacement housing).

Even though 47 million Americans don’t have health care insurance, no one really believed the president would talk too much about it in his 2008 State of the Union speech.

And the good news? Without any high expectations, no one was disappointed when Bush gave the nation’s health care all of 159 words. Besides, what’s the point if you’re only repeating yourself? (more…)

To hear original rap songs by my young ‘Music Writing’ students, watch videos of their live performances, and to read their hilariously mean album reviews of local artists (as published in Gambit Weekly) visit myspace.com/mrmichaelsclass.

This week, my brilliant 2^nd graders at Behrman Elementary on the West Bank completed their second song of the semester (the first being their Christmas rap, which you can read about HERE). Or, almost finished it… My fault, definitely. As I’ve stated before, these kids are the best, most with-it I’ve yet taught. Many New Orleans kids I’ve worked with, even if the activity is fun, they initially project skepticism, doubt and stubbornness. I have to fight them, drag them kicking and whining toward the fun. But these Behrman kids, when we’re sitting in the cafeteria before class completing homework, they ask me “what we doin in rap class today?” and by the time we line up to walk to my room, their new verses are already half written. So different. Truly amazing.

This new song is called “Our New Year”. Because the Christmas song went so well, every time I’ve since asked them to choose a new song topic, they’ve listed the next holiday: “A Mardi Gras song!” they cheer now. (more…)

Allright, y’all, this missive is from Captain Ann-Marie Coviello of the Box of Wine. The Box of Wine is the parade that marches down St. Charles to alert the revelers and Mardi Gras fans that the time of Bacchus is upon us. It is open to all and more fun than a barrel of Motley Crue and Lindsay Lohan. Come march or watch.

To those who don’t know, Bacchus is the reason behind Mardi Gras. It all goes back to Bachhus. And he must be worshipped and given tribute especially, according to Grand Marshall for Life Shelly Loughnane, “by those who lives the lives that we do.”

From Ann Marie:

It’s that time of year again, the time of year when a Bacchante’s mind turns away from the quotidian and toward the call of Dionysus’ drumming…. (more…)

by Sam Winston

I said it would be Paris. It’ll be London instead. If I’m still on this side of the pond, it’s only an hour flight to London from Hamburg. If any Saints crazies are planning on making trip, avoid the “traditional” English breakfast and try to find some clotted creme instead. I was just there for New Year’s and beans for breakfast when they are not “south of the border” style are terrifying.

With Mardi Gras rolling fast and hard, it is easy, while living in the heart of New Orleans, to forget what is happening in the rest of the world. However, since I am the wimp of all wimps when it comes to weather, I have yet to venture out to see a parade.

This unwillingness to be cold or wet has given me the opportunity to catch up on my favorite past time. Surprisingly, this obsession of mine is with Awards Shows. Normally, I love them all. I am not a huge fan of the droning on of announcers or the sometimes unbearable acceptance speeches, but instead, I love to see actors dressed in their finest. Nothing is more satisfying to me than to see what beauty is cast upon the red carpets. (more…)

You may or may not have heard of Ninth Ward organist Mr. Quintron’s musical invention the Drum Buddy, but if you’ve ever attended one of his sweaty dance parties you’ve seen the curious machine flashing and whirring front and center. The machine is a combination analog synthesizer/rhythm kit/signal processor whose beeps, tweets and scratches are regulated by light sensors read through differently spaced holes in the spinning can that rotates atop the machine. The principle is half-theremin, half-player piano, and it gives Quintron’s sound its distinctly organic-meets-digital swamp tone.

Because of the cost and effort involved in making the instruments, they’re not often advertised as on sale to the public - however, a recent order from experimental musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson spurred a production frenzy, and a run of ten were sold over the past few months. The last machine in the series - which boasts a unique cabinet carved from rare Louisiana sinker cypress - is now up for auction on eBay, ending Mardi Gras Day.

The profits from the sale are pledged to go to the New Orleans Musicians Clinic. Click here to bid - and start making some funny noises of your own.

by Sam Winston

Mardi Gras is not just too early for Crawfish, the season is supposed to be particularly bad according to this radio interview.

It’s funny. As the average/clueless consumer, I seem to remember over recent years having no middle ground for crawfish seasons. It was always either “sparse” around Mardi Gras time only to watch consumer prices sink to ridiculous levels by the end of spring as the Crawdads grew in size and quantity, or for the Crawfish to remain small all year with hefty 4 dollar a pound and up prices. Then a friend of the family usually comes in late spring every year from the Lafayette area and destroys our New Orleans impression of the season with steroid size Crawfish that seemed to never have anything to do with the up and down talk of the season.

Regardless, another good friend of mine, whose boiling claim to fame is oranges in addition to lemons, lamented recently that with the Gras so early this year, things just aren’t the same without plentiful Crawfish.

 by Sam Winston

With Barack Obama’s latest victory in South Carolina the theme of what role his race played in his success is getting tossed around once more. That includes what role it will play in Louisiana.

Is it too naive to ask again why he is considered only black when he has a white mother?

While New Orleans and Louisiana often seem stuck in the same types of traditional formations of race, Bobby Jindal did overcome Louisiana’s own reservations about his “brown skin”. It’s true that Jindal’s easy victory stemmed primarily from a lack of a viable opponent rather than some sort racial healing in the state. Still, I think Obama has the ability to do the same in Louisiana (comparisons ending there considering among other things their opposite political stances).

Wondering previously if any of this would matter by the time Louisiana goes to the polls, its seems likelier than ever that it will.

“Still, with each of the top Democrats having won two primaries, it appeared increasingly likely that the party’s presidential nominating fight could extend well beyond Feb. 5, perhaps even to the national convention in late summer.” -IHT.com

Indeed the rumor mill/smear campaign against Obama found its way today into a central Louisiana paper.

Below are some of the highlighted comments (and commentary) on the Obama race issue as things head into Super Tuesday and Louisiana. (more…)

The crowds were five to six people deep in the French Quarter today, as hundreds of local dogs  paraded and sniffed the streets on the first sunny day of carnival.

This years theme: Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Bark

Humans tried to blend.

There is something very alien like about pugs…

If that big cat doesn’t work out… the “Fighting Chihuahuas” has a nice ring to it.

I am not sure if this method really works…

A parade attendee is creative with his beverage and bead transport “object” on the second day of parades. 

Tonight Oshun braved the horrible weather and down pour and started the Carnival season out all alone. The mob of Cotton Candy Vendors, the upbeat NOPD and umbrellaed krewe all made an appearance and the statement that despite the wet weather, Mardi Gras 2008 will go on.  Hopefully we will have better weather for Saturday. 

UPDATE- the cancelled parades have now been rescheduled:

Uptown

Pygmalion- Wednesday, Jan. 29 (will follow Druids)

Westbank

Cleopatra- Wednesday, Jan. 29, at 6:30 p.m. — route diverted through Terrytown

Metairie

Excalibur- Monday, Jan. 28 at 7 p.m.

Atlas- rescheduled to follow Excalibur

Northshore

Eve- Monday, Jan. 27 at 7 p.m

Tomorrow night the City Life will debut its new single, “White Elephant,” at Carrollton Station alongside homeboys Fay Wray. The guitar-driven track, an angular post-punk rocker with happy feet that bears striking resemblance to Franz Ferdinand’s “The Dark of the Matinee,” is easily the top horse in the emerging quintet’s impressive stable of restless-leg dance anthems. It’s perhaps my second-favorite NOLA rock song of the moment.

Now, I have yet to witness the City Life do the “Elephant,” but it would be tough to imagine the band — or any local band, for that matter — topping the live rendition of “Ernest Borgnine” put on by Antenna Inn. The latter, a nine-piece jazz/rock outfit, has its shortcomings, nearly all of which revolve around its proclivity for emo vocals and overblown poems (see: “The mind is a crazy thing/But only when you listen to it”). It’s hard to find fault with the group’s onstage product, however, which at times borders on a sonic orgy and is always a study in glorious excess. (more…)